Apply for VIA Water-Fund Supporting Innovative Solutions to Water Problems

VIA Water-Fund Call for Proposals: Supporting Innovative Solutions for Water Problems in African Cities

Applications are open for VIA Water Fund. VIA Water is a Dutch programme designed to identify and support innovative solutions for urban water issues in African cities. Proposals need to focus on one of the following pressing needs: sanitation, groundwater, urban agriculture, water quality, floods & droughts, financial arrangements, data, rainwater harvesting, water allocation, urban planning, drinking water or institutional strengthening. Please note that applicants need to be registered organizations, not individuals

VIA Water is not just about funding: knowledge sharing is key to the programme. The programme is a partnership between UNESCO-IHE, Aqua for All and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, designed to generate more knowledge about effective development tools. This means that the Programme Office (based at UNESCO-IHE) assists partners in their social innovation and maintains an (online) learning community

 The funding is provided for by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the contracting and Fund Management is being handled by Aqua for All, who can also assist in connecting applicants to other funding programmes if necessary.

Focus Areas

• Sanitation
• Groundwater
• Urban agriculture
• Water quality
• Floods & droughts financial arrangements
• Data
• Rainwater harvesting
• Water allocation
• Urban planning
• Drinking water
• Institutional strengthening

Funding Information

• VIA Water preferably fund projects between € 50.000 and € 100.000.
• The maximum amount of funding is € 200.000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicant’s need to be registered organizations (companies, universities, government agencies etc.); not individuals.
• Applicants promise to refrain from all forms of fraud and will monitor, report and counteract fraud by sub-contracted parties.
• Applying companies with more than 20 employees adhere to, publish and practice CSR policy.
• Applicants accept the open-source policy of VIA Water and are willing to share and participate in their learning/exchange community and in events.
• Lead applicants are able to take full responsibility for implementation and have sufficient expertise in the project field.
• Ownership of the project and its formulation are locally secured.
• The application is project-specific, with defined beginning and end dates, milestones and measurable targets.
• The project will clearly have a positive impact on the least privileged communities.
• There is no religion-related component to the project.

Important Dates to remember

How to Apply

Applicants can email their project idea in the form of a one- or two-page teaser at the address given on the website.

Full proposals can be submitted until April 10th. In order for your full proposal to be submitted by April 10th, we advise you to send us your project idea in the form of a teaser at the latest by February 6th. You can email your teaser to teasers@viawater.nl. It is not obligatory to send in a teaser before sending in your final proposal: it will however greatly increase your chances since we will be able to send you feedback on your teaser before you start drafting your final proposal.

All information and requirements for your teaser and the full proposal can be found in the Roadmap to VIA Water Support.

Some things to keep in mind when you start writing

• The teaser can be more than 2 pages
• Hand in your teaser and the full proposal as complete as possible
• Keep the full proposal short however: max 25 pages for the main body + annexes
• Make sure that your partnerships have been committed and add proof of this
• Keep your submission smaller than 7MB
• The budget needs to be in excel and in Euro
• Add a logical framework/theory of change, a time plan, a clear commitment for co-funding and a learning agenda
• Don’t forget to take a look at our online toolbox for proposal writing before you start – it will give you some great tips!

Resources

Roadmap to VIA Water Support.

Eligible Countries: Benin, Mali, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Mozambique

For more information, please visit VIA Water Fund Call for Proposals.